"Manti and Ronaiah are family," she said, "or at least family friends." She told us that the Tuiasosopos had been on-field guests (of Te'o or someone else, she didn't know) for the Nov. 24 Notre Dame-USC game in Los Angeles. USC was unable to confirm this, but a tweet from Tuiasosopo's since-deleted account suggests he and Te'o did see each other on that West Coast trip. "Great night with my bro @MTeo_5! #Heisman #574L," Ronaiah tweeted on Nov. 23, the night before the game.

And there was something else: Tuiasosopo had been in a car accident a month before Lennay's supposed accident.

Was this Lennay Kekua? We spoke with friends and relatives of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo who asserted that Ronaiah was the man behind Lennay. He created Lennay in 2008, one source said.

Tim Burke, one of the authors in the Deadspin piece, joined Doug Gottlieb on CBS Sports Radio's Doug Gottlieb Show on Wednesday afternoon to explain the work that went into the story. Deadspin was initially alerted about the hoax via a reader email, but it was not until Burke and Jack Dickey began digging that the absurdity of the situation began to reveal itself.